A place for a tired old woman to try to figure things out so that the world makes a bit of sense.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Well, OK Then

(Click on image to enlarge and then return.)

OK, OK, I know it's two days in a row for touting a Horsey cartoon and column, but I liked what he had to say and I'm also not feeling too sharp after falling yesterday and landing hard on my butt. It's hard to think clearly while sitting on an ice pack and popping pain killers.

In any event, Horsey provides us with the perfect picture of today's Republican Party, a picture which is supplemented by other news from the convention.

He begins the column by noting the parade of people of color during Tuesday's proceedings, both as speakers and as delegates casting their states votes for the nominee. And then he moves in for the kill.

Republicans truly believe that a rising tide lifts all boats, and that the best thing a poor Latino or an underemployed African American can do to better his or her condition is to vote for a party that intends to let rich people keep more of their money. Showing off all those non-Caucasian officeholders is a way of saying to skeptical minority voters, "These guys have chosen the Republican path and just look where it has gotten them!"

It is a way for a party dominated by affluent white people to not feel embarrassed by their lack of diversity and, in fact, to assert a kind of superiority: "Democrats pander to you and keep you in thrall to the welfare state; we Republicans offer you a better way -- the free-market, pull-yourselves-up-by-the-bootstraps way."

In a year when Republicans are brazenly trying to suppress the minority vote in Ohio and Florida and are taking the hardest of hard lines on immigration, voting Republican may be a tough sell in minority communities. Still, the party has found some forceful salesmen who have risen from those communities, and they are filling the stage in Tampa with them. [Emphasis added]

But, wait! There's more. Also on Tuesday, one of the uglier episodes of the week occurred on the convention floor: a CNN African American camerawoman was assaulted by two delegates.

Two attendees at the Republican National Convention were thrown out of the convention center in Tampa on Tuesday after throwing nuts at a black CNN camerawoman and saying, "this is how we feed the animals." [Emphasis added]

That was Tuesday. Yesterday, Anne Romney was apparently sent out to do some damage control (via Eschaton). Speaking about women and Hispanic voters, Lady Anne had this to say:

Romney said her “importance in speaking out is making sure that those coalitions,” referring to women and Hispanic voters, “that would naturally be voting for another party wake up and say, You’d better really look at the issues this time.”

“You’d better really look at your future and figure out who’s going to be the guy that’s going to make it better for you and your children, and there is only one answer,” Mrs. Romney said, giving a harsher pitch than we usually hear from the woman who wants to be the next first lady.

“It really is a message that would resonate well if they could just get past some of their biases that have been there from the Democratic machines that have made us look like we don’t care about this community,” Romney said. “And that is not true. We very much care about you and your families and the opportunities that are there for you and your families.”

Um, yeah. Sure. And that's why the GOP platform would outlaw abortion for any reason and would build a fence the whole length of the Mexican border, and why her husband promises to de-fund Planned Parenthood and lies about President Obama's rolling back welfare reform to appease "his base" (wink-wink).

I really hope the American electorate isn't as stupid as the Republican Party thinks we are.

John, Horsey's column does list some of the Latino and Black speakers featured for that evening, and I summarized that:

"He begins the column by noting the parade of people of color during Tuesday's proceedings, both as speakers and as delegates casting their states votes for the nominee. And then he moves in for the kill."